Web sites claim phone for gamers hacked
The Associated Press

Hackers claimed Tuesday to have cracked the security code on Nokia's new N-Gage, saying they could play its games on other multimedia-capable cell phones. The company said it was investigating the claims.

Several Web sites and online bulletin boards said the code that protects Nokia's proprietary software was broken.

If so, that could result in N-Gage games becoming available for handsets made by other companies that use the Series 60 operating system. It also means that pirated copies could be downloaded from the Internet.

We are taking a look to see what has happened, Nokia spokesman Damian Stathonikos told The Associated Press. We take it very seriously and we are definitely investigating this.

If the code-cracking claims turn out to be true, said Stathonikos, Nokia will move to defend its intellectual copyrights.

Nokia released the N-Gage on Oct. 7 with an advertising and marketing blitz that put it in nearly 30,000 stores in 60 countries. It is offered by wireless carriers including Vodafone, mm02 and, in the United States, T-Mobile.

The N-Gage features multiplayer game play on a tri-band mobile phone that supports Bluetooth wireless networking and includes an MP3 player and an FM radio.

According to the gaming Web site Spong.com, N-Gage's security has been cracked like an egg, with other manufacturers' handsets able to play the machine's software.

Club-Siemens, an unofficial Web site run by Silje Brevik and Jorgen Molna, a pair of Norwegians working in London, featured pictures of what it said were screen shots of N-Gage games successfully operating on a Siemens AG's SX1 handset.

An e-mail seeking comment was not immediately returned.


SF